A fortnightly column reflecting on chapters of India’s political past that are relevant today.

A violent mob mobilised by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Sangh parivar demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

Twenty-five years ago, India was in a ferment of a different kind.
The backdrop was provided by the Congress under P.V. Narasimha Rao, who
was running its first minority government. The BJP had emerged as the
principal opposition for the first time and its new-found stature
provided credibility to L.K. Advani’s claim that his party was the
government-in-waiting.
But while one priority sector of the government was the economy, with
liberalisation having been ushered in and globalisation on the anvil,
on another critical issue that necessitated dedicated attention, Rao’s
approach was apathetic, to say the least. He allowed the communal tiger
to not just raise its head but also consume India in a gory round of
violence which was soon met with a response.
The BJP fought the 1991 polls without major alliance partners and yet
emerged as the second-largest party. For a party which had just two
members in the Lok Sabha before the 1989 elections, this astonishing
growth had come on the back of the several-years-long Ram janmabhoomi
agitation to build a Ram temple at Ayodhya after demolishing the Babri
Masjid. Polls for the tenth Lok Sabha were called early in 1991 because
of the temple imbroglio and consequently, Rao was aware it required
immediate attention. Yet, not inexplicably, he allowed the conflict to
drift through 1991 and early months of 1992. The BJP was allowed a
virtual free-run and it violated the judicial process through the Uttar
Pradesh government it headed.
When we revisit the 18-month period beginning June 1991 from when Rao
assumed office to December 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished by
a pre-determined mob assembled by various sections of the Sangh parivar,
there is no escaping the conclusion that the Indian state never
abandoned its domestic responsibility to uphold rule of law to such
extent ever before. Similarly, there is no denying that despite Advani’s submission that
December 6, 1992, was the “saddest day” in his life, the act was
wilfully staged to foist the understanding that Indian nationalism was
based on cultural nationalism or in a lay person’s terms, a nationalism
depicted as being rooted in the Hindu culture of the land. Other
cultural and religious streams were part of ‘Hindu culture’ it was
argued.
Shortly after his release from a comfortable stay – though under
judicial custody – in a government guest house a short distance from
Jhansi, Advani astounded everyone by declaring that the Ayodhya
agitation had never been to “just build” a Ram temple. Instead, he
elaborated, it was a device to propagate Hindutva as an alternate
national vision to what was adopted and pursued post-independence. That
statement exposed the real agenda of the Sangh parivar. In the quarter
of a century since the demolition, much of India has been altered,
perhaps irreversibly. [. . .]
FULL TEXT HERE: https://thewire.in/196553/babri-masjid-demolition/

Map of L K Advani's Rath Yatra of 1990

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